Origins
by Celirian
Summary: In Fiore magic always has been and always will be and no one has ever questioned that. At least, not until Natsu and the gang find themselves untangling a mystery that could reshape everything they thought they knew about magic and it's origins.
1. Chapter 1

_Origins_

Author: Celirian

Series: Fairy Tail

Summary: In Fiore, magic has always been and always will be and the members of Fairy Tail never questioned that. At least, not until Natsu and the gang get tied up in a mystery that could unravel everything they know about magic and its origins.

Disclaimer: The world of Fairy Tail and all its characters belong to Hiiro Mashima. I own nothing and am only borrowing said characters for some amusement and fun.

Most of the ideas and concepts for this story however are original and are very AU with the current story line. In terms of timeline assume this is ancient and takes place right after Laxus and Raijin Tribe try to take over Fairy Tail. There will also be a few original characters introduced later on- please do not use them without prior permission (not that I think that will be an issue). I have no idea how long this story will end up being, but I will try to post at regular intervals. (No promises though).

Any kind of productive feedback is appreciated- flaming and immature comments will be ignored and probably made fun of. So without any further ado...enjoy.

Chapter 1: The Job Board

Lucy Heartfelia sat at the bar. Her chin rested lazily in the palm of her hand which was propped up at a slight angle, causing her to slouch over. Half lidded, tired eyes gazed past Mirajane who was busy making drinks for the many occupants of the guild's oversized bar lobby. It was noisy today— noisier than usual. More guild members were home and around than had been in the past couple of months. There was nothing special about that day; no celebrations or birthdays or holidays, just a strange coincidence that almost every guild member seemed to be between jobs at the moment.

Granted, to any normal person outside of the guild the building was _always_ noisy. Fairy Tail was infamous for being loud… among other things that may or may not have included being rambunctious, unpredictable, easily riled up, and downright destructive. All these things to Lucy were as normal as the sunrise in the morning. It took a flexible and patient person to be in Fairy Tail— a lesson she learned very quickly when she had first arrived. Within thirty- no maybe even fifteen seconds- of walking through the front door her partner Natsu had started an all out brawl with his ultimate rival Gray. This ultimately lead to an all-out guild beat down that included anyone and everyone underneath Fairy Tail's roof whether they wanted to be involved or not.

Still, today was even more noisy than usual.

Taking her half full cup of ice water, Lucy put the bottom of the cold glass to her forehead. It helped the pounding headache that she had woken up with for a brief second, but not for long. She peered up through the bottom of the glass and watched the light dance through the water's surface until a drop of condensation made a great leap from the side of the glass to her nose. Lucy went cross-eyed and focused in on the drop as it rested on the tip of her small nose.

"Careful Lucy, you wouldn't want your eyes to get stuck that way."

The playful joke was followed by a light giggle and Lucy looked up at Mirajane who was now leaning over the bar on her elbows to meet Lucy face to face.

Mira cocked her head to the side and smiled brilliantly as some of her white hair fell over and obscured her face. She pointed a long, delicate finger up at the glass. "Want me to put more ice in that?"

Lucy looked up at the drink on her forehead again and then sat up, replacing the water to its rightful spot on the bar. She wiped the water droplet off her nose and shook her head. "No thanks. It wasn't really helping anyway."

"Okay." Mira frowned and straightened herself up to put her hands on her hips. "I haven't seen you this gloomy in a while. Is something the matter?"

Lucy stared at the water glass again. "Just a headache."

Mira didn't respond for a moment. She studied the young blonde with a serious gaze for a solid minute before her normal smile cracked her lips and she let out an airy laugh. "I think someone might have a good case of cabin fever."

"What?" Lucy looked up at her friend, eyebrows furrowed. Sometimes Mira made no sense. At least not until you thought about what she said and then you could find the hidden meaning that she always seems to slip into her random statements, but today Lucy's aching mind wasn't in the riddle-solving mood.

"You've been cooped up in here for the past three weeks!" Mira pointed to a window on the side of the bar. "The only times you've been outside were when you're coming here from your home or going home."

Lucy blinked a couple of times and then gazed outside as if seeing it for the first time. Mira was right, as usual, but she still felt a jolt of disbelief at the statement. "Three weeks?"

Mira just nodded and slowly wandered to the opposite end of the bar where Cana was perched with her usual kegs of ale and began talking.

"Huh…" Lucy looked back out the window, slowly realizing she had wasted over a month doing… pretty much nothing. Aside from getting a few chapters finished in her novel she had quite literally thrown out most of her time for the past number of weeks.

Well, she had to defend herself in some ways—all three weeks being wasted wasn't entirely her fault. When she had returned from a mission with Natsu and Gray that had required trekking through unimaginable amounts of snow and being wet for 80% of the mission, while it had paid her rent for the next two months, she had come down with a rather nasty case of the flu. A week in bed easily cured that, but the other two weeks she had no one to blame but herself. Neither Natsu nor Gray had asked her to go on any jobs recently. Erza had been away on a mission alone and was still one of the few members not back at the Guild, but Lucy knew she could have easily walked the fifteen feet to the billboard and taken a look at what was available or asked anyone if she could join them on a job.

But no one was on a job, which was why it was so noisy.

Lucy spun around on her bar stool and looked out at her fellow guild members. Natsu and Gray were in the back corner involved in a rather intense staring contest. Their audience had grown significantly larger since a half hour ago when their familiar banter announced the competition's initiation. The rowdy crowd was now choosing sides rooting for the wizard they thought were going to win and Macao had started taking bets.

Lucy smiled as she stood from her stool and meandered over to the job board. The little square had filled up in the past week to the point where barely any wood was showing between the different posts. It quickly became clear as for why it was so full; most of the jobs posted were either low paying for the amount of work it required, really far away (and with the Harvest Festival over and the Winter Festival right around the corner who would want to risk missing that?), or the job was outright boring. No monsters to hunt down, no mysteries to solve—a few lost articles that needed finding, a call for a babysitter for way too little money (seriously 10,000 jewels to babysit four three year olds?), a search and rescue call that was as far south as you could go before finding endless ocean, and…

A gust of wind fluttered the papers on the board from an open window and something grabbed Lucy's attention. Well, the reward grabbed her attention. Reaching out a hand, she moved a request for that crazy acting troupe aside (because her acting days were over no matter how much the insane director was willing to pay) to see a small piece of paper hidden underneath it.

_Mages Needed, Preferably with Guild Knowledge_- _700,000 Jewels_

_Information and tracking investigation._

_Requirements: Must be from a registered guild and have diverse skills. Groups preferred._

_For details contact Professor Rosche, Kizern University History Department, Ancient Magics Division _

Lucy frowned; the post wasn't very explicit about what the job entailed. Information and tracking? Did they need to already have the information or would they be gathering the information? What would they be investigating? Could they hear what this professor day to say before accepting the job?

It was sketchy to say the least. Then again, it was for a professor at a university so he couldn't be _too_ creepy… right?

"What're you looking at, Lucy?"

The blonde jumped as a high pitched voice rang out in her right ear; startled, she turned and tore the job advertisement that was still clutched in her hand off the board. Lucy frowned at Happy who was hovering in the air just at her ear's height and staring at the paper that was now in Lucy's hand. He swooped down and snatched the listing from her hand. "Did you find us a job? I hope so, I've been really bored."

Lucy reached out to grab the paper back, but Happy zipped backwards just out of her reach, reading the paper all the while. "Happy! I was just looking at—"

"Natsu! Lucy found us a job!" Happy dashed across the hall, paper fluttering in his paws.

"—it. Here we go…" Lucy trailed off as she found herself talking to air. Well, that was that. If the past was any indication there was no getting out of this now; Natsu never said no to anything.

At least she hadn't torn down the performance bill; she was pretty sure that Natsu would jump at the chance to dress up as a dragon again any day.

Slowly, Lucy followed Happy's trail to the table where Natsu sat looking at the bill. He looked up as she approached, his face twisted in confusion. "I don't get it. What's the job?"

Gray rolled his eyes and he bent down over Natsu's shoulder to read the paper. "Looks like you gotta talk to this teacher guy to find out. That sounds a little…sketchy." he raised an eyebrow at Lucy.

_Thank you!_ Lucy nodded. "That's what I was thinking, but then again if he teaches at a school as big as Kizern, it can't be too bad. Right? We've done other jobs like this before. Maybe he doesn't want just anyone finding out about his research."

Gray looked skeptical. "I wonder why he doesn't just ask someone he knows at the school or students to help him. You'd think they'd be more qualified to help than someone from outside his field."

"Not everyone who goes to school can do magic." Lucy crossed her arms and bit her bottom lip. She remembered Levi talking about the college in Magnolia. There were a ton of students who weren't mages, but still studied magic. "They can study things like history and magi-tech and besides, he said he wanted people with guild knowledge. I bet students who can do magic are too busy to join guilds. Maybe they don't know a lot about them."

Natsu frowned a little and then bounced up from his chair and pointed to himself with his thumb. "Well I can track anything and Lucy's real smart so she can do the research! Besides, I've never been to a school before."

"That's obvious." Gray mumbled and Natsu immediately rounded on him putting himself inches from his friend's nose. Gray narrowed his eyes in response. "What? You heard me."

"You've never been to one either! So you're just as dumb as I am."

"What did you just call me?"

Lucy turned just as Natsu was winding up for his first hit in the inevitable beat down that was about to take place and waved to Happy. The cat grabbed the job bill out of Natsu's hand and expertly evaded getting hit as he floated through the air after Lucy. He fluttered down to the bar and turned as Mira came up behind him.

The cat held the paper up. "We're going to take this job."

Mira looked at the bill curiously as she took it and read it over. "That's odd, I don't recognize this one. Where did you find it?"

Lucy sat down on a stool and looked up at her friend. "It was under one of the other postings. You mean you haven't seen it?"

Mira shook her head.

Happy's ears drooped. "Oh… maybe it's a joke then?"

"Hm, let me go ask Master about it. Maybe he put it up there and forgot to tell me about it."

As Mira walked off, Lucy poked Happy in the side. "Don't sound so sad. We can always find something else."

"Yeah, but Natsu and I were looking at the board this morning. Nothing else looks like much fun and who wants to do a boring job?"

Lucy couldn't deny that but she had to do _something_ at this point. Once Mira pointed out that she wasted a good portion of the month sitting around, she felt… kind of icky. She never thought of herself as someone to sit around and do nothing. Although, with the Harvest Festival recently passed and that whole debacle with Laxus still hanging in the air no one had been themselves recently. Things were changing in Fairy Tail and in the magic world around the guild and it was weighing on many of them.

It was a couple of minutes later that Mira came back with the job posting in hand. She laughed as she put it down next to Happy. "Just as I thought. You're good to go."

Happy jumped up into the air with an excited whoop and took off for the brawl that was quickly expanding at the back of the guild. "Natsu! We've gotta go pack!"

Lucy shook her head and let out a small sigh as she exchanged a knowing glance with Mira. "And so it begins."

Mira laughed and leaned over putting her chin in her hand. "Is that how your book starts out?"

_Huh? Where did that come from? _

"N…no, but…" Lucy grinned as she thought about it. "It does sound like a great chapter title."


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I am so glad that you guys are giving this a chance and seem to enjoy it! Thank you so much for those of you who reviewed; I really appreciate it. I know things might start off a little slow, but don't worry it'll all pick up soon I promise.

EDIT: Omg my apologies if anyone read this with those missing names. This is the 3rd time Fanfiction has saved changes I've made to a document and then used the older version after I've updated the chapter -_- its so embarrassing.

* * *

Chapter 2- The Professor

Gray Fullbuster wasn't quite sure how he got himself roped into going with Natsu, Happy, and Lucy to a college town filled with bookworms and geeks and teachers.

Okay, that was a lie— he knew _exactly_ how he ended up hopping on the train at the last minute because it would be a cold day in hell before he'd let the flamer get lone bragging rights about 'going to school'. That just wasn't going to happen; besides, what did Natsu know about studying and research? He probably hadn't ever read a book to the end before.

_He's probably never even _started_ a book before. _

Although he couldn't blame Natsu for that. Books were pretty boring. He never understood how Levi and Lucy found them so enthralling, spending hours on end with their noses buried in paper and words and chapters.

Lucy seemed really excited when they left; she said she had only ever visited the University in Magnolia once before and that it was supposed to be small compared to Kizern.

"It's the biggest and most prestigious school in Fiore!" She said, practically bouncing in her seat. She was completely ignoring Natsu who was flopped over, head in her lap and getting greener by the minute. "You know, if I hadn't joined Fairy Tail I might have gone to school eventually."

Happy laughed. "What would you study?"

"Maybe writing. I don't know."

Gray had tuned out the conversation from there. He knew that people went to school for a lot of things but he never understood why some of them went to school for magic. Magic wasn't something that could be taught in a classroom; it had to be learned step by step and he couldn't fathom anyone doing that among lots of different students.

_Ul only had two of us and we practically drove her crazy._

Envisioning thirty other kids trying to learn magic the way they did was hilarious. It would be utter chaos. Besides, the world didn't need a bunch of other people stripping throughout the day. Still, even Gray would admit that he was interested to see how this school worked. With all the different things going on lately (from the war with Phantom to Laxus being expelled) he was beginning to realize that a lot happened every day in the world that he wasn't very aware of.

He had no idea about Lucy's past or that her father was such a powerful (and crazy) person. That there were people out there that were so bent on money and prestige that they would walk all over family to get it and threaten lives or even start a war. And who knew what Laxus had been doing with the Rajin tribe or what they had experienced to make him so bent on taking Fairy Tail over for some greater purpose?

That still didn't give them the right to do what they did, either of them, but Gray was beginning to see that there was a catalyst for every event and even though he might not know what it was or agree on how the person (or persons) reacted, it was still important to consider and learn about.

Sure, he knew about things other people didn't. The look on Natsu and Lucy's faces when they found Deloria on Galuna Island was proof enough of that. He didn't want to remember the monster at that time. All the pain and suffering it had caused him throughout his life, but in hindsight it showed him he had learned lessons that other people hadn't. Learning and growing were about experience and everything that was out in the real world: getting his hands dirty, spilling some blood, and seeing how the world worked first hand. How could anyone really learn something in a cramped classroom?

Guess he'd find out soon enough. Or maybe not soon enough; Kizern was far and trains were slow and watching Natsu writhe was only fun for long before he actually started to feel bad for the guy. Only a little bad, though.

_Mighty Dragon Slayer. Pfft._

Overall the ride wasn't too bad. Between watching Lucy and Happy bicker and poking at Natsu to see what colors his cheeks could turn, Gray managed to keep himself occupied. When they did finally roll into the station it was already dark, but the city's glow was so bright it gave the sky an orange glow. Gray dragged Natsu to his feet and off the train, but was only a few steps away from the train when he had to stop.

Kizern was huge. Magnolia might be a big city, but Kizern was _huge_. The buildings went to the horizon and beyond as far as the eye could see. Nestled in a valley between a couple of rather large hills (not quite mountains) to the East and West the city stretched North and South, divided by a river that cut through the valley. The buildings were bright and colorful and the streets were crowded with people, even well after dinner time. Distant music and lively chatter popped up from every direction.

Who knew college towns would be so energetic?

Lucy stretched as they looked around at the streets below from the vantage point where the train let them off on the Western hill. Across the way on the Eastern hill sat the University; at least it had to be the University. It _looked_ scholarly. A spread of large, brick buildings that climbed up the hill and on top of it all was the largest building with a clock tower that was large enough to rival the one at the Cathedral in Magnolia.

Gray shifted Natsu on his shoulder and glanced down at Happy near his feet. The cat yawned and frowned up at him. "What now?"

"I think we should find a place to stay for the night. It's too late to look for that professor now." Gray looked at Lucy. "Besides, I'm starving."

Lucy nodded. Fourteen hours on a train was never fun and everyone was exhausted and hungry and more than a little cranky.

"Hey Natsu," Lucy looked over at the green Dragon Slayer and grinned. "Levi told me she's been here before and that there's this really famous street that all the students go to called Snack Street. It's nothing but blocks of food carts."

Oh man, that sounded awesome. Gray was pretty sure his stomach would start eating itself if he didn't find food soon.

Natsu, on the other hand, just hiccupped.

_Mighty Dragon Slayer my ass._

* * *

If Natsu's motion sickness was an impressive thing to see, then his ability to recover after rolling around on the floor like a lethargic slug was doubly so. They hadn't walked through town more than ten minutes before he was back to his rambunctious and carnivorous self. Tired as they were after the train ride, the night had not been an early one. Which was something Lucy was kind of regretting at eight in the morning as she walked up the steep hill towards Kizern University… kind of. It was still a fun night between Gray's dismay at figuring out the city's specialty was spicy food and a couple students asking if they could study Happy in their laboratory.

Kizern was not what she had been expecting. She found herself with preconceptions about towns just like she did about people. When she first arrived in Magnolia she knew it was a town of magic since there was a major guild there. She expected to see certain kinds of people and she had ideas about what she would find in the town: magic shops, mages, guild merchandise. Port towns were about trade and business and commerce, and college towns about learning and education.

Why she was expecting libraries and book stores and students coming and going from their studies was suddenly beyond her. Sure, there were bookstores and there were students but that was all between the bars and restaurants and cafes and gardens. It was mixed in with the live music and parties and an air of life that was acutely different than what was found in Magnolia. Both cities were vibrant and energetic but in very, very different ways.

Things were quieter in the morning. Without nearly enough time to recover from their festivities, students dragged themselves to classes, part time jobs, or to cram in some last minute studying. The air smelt of coffee and baked goods and everything else easy for someone to grab and eat on the go. Gray was happily munching on his own muffin as Lucy finished off an apple and Natsu and Happy bickered over the last of five meat stuffed dumplings they had bought from a small snack cart outside the school's gate.

Lucy tossed her apple core in a trash can and groaned a little. "This city is huge and this school is huge. How are we supposed to find this professor?" _You'd think a school this big might have signs or something…_

Gray shrugged. "He's a history guy right? We just have to find where their history department is."

"So we jus... haf to ask shom…one." Natsu said between bites of the dumpling he managed to win from Happy.

Which was easier said than done. They asked a language student who knew the professor's name but nothing else, a biology student that hated history, and a math teacher who was so busy talking to himself he didn't even hear their question before they found someone who could help.

Happy cut a tall girl with brown curly hair off in midair to ask if she knew who the professor was and after staring for a solid minute she finally nodded without taking her eyes off Happy's wings. "Professor Rosche? Yeah, his office is on the second floor of the archive building. Keep heading straight up the hill and when you get to the lake take the right path. It's next to the library."

"Finally." Lucy said relieved. "Are you a history student?"

"Yeah," The girl turned with a smile. "I'm in his ancient civilizations class. He's a really good teacher once you can get past his tendency to go on tangents all the time. If he's not in his office his student assistant will probably know where he is."

Happy did a flip. "Thanks!"

The girl blinked. "Um, you're a cat, right? Were you magically enhanced or something?"

Natsu laughed. "No way, Happy is Happy!"

"Aye!" Happy said flipping again before floating to the ground. "I can do magic, though."

Lucy shook her head. She always forgot that Happy wasn't the typical house cat. The people in Magnolia were so used to him that no one even blinked twice at him so when they went outside the city she always had to remind herself that a talking flying cat was more than a little odd.

"Happy, that's a cute name." The girl laughed and knelt down to pat Happy on the head. "That's pretty cool that you can do magic. I'd stay away from the science students though, they'd have a field day with you!"

"No kidding." Gray rolled his eyes. "They looked ready to dissect him last night on our dinner table."

"I don't doubt that; we can all get fanatical about our work. So what are you guys doing here at the University? Are you all mages?"

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, we're from Fairy Tail. We're here on a job."

"Really?! That's so cool! I always wished I could do magic, but all I can do is study it." Standing back up, the girl waved. "Well, I better get going. It was nice meeting you and good luck with your work!"

"What's your name?!" Happy shouted after the girl as she walked away.

She turned and waved. "Candice!"

Lucy waved after her and began back up the road. She really hoped the others they worked with were like her. This job could be a lot of fun.

* * *

Books.

Books were _everywhere_. Up the walls, on the floor, on the desks, on the chairs where people should be sitting at the desks; there was even one sitting precariously on one of the ceiling fan wings. Books with bookmarks, books splayed open, books stacked at angles that defied physics. It was like Fairy Tail's basement archive only not organized.

Natsu never thought he'd be happy that Mirajane was a slight neat freak. Not that he had ever read any of the books at the guild nor would he read any from that office; there were far better (and much, _much_ more interesting) things to do.

Lucy, on the other hand, looked like she was physically hurting as she stepped into the room and looked around at the mess. Her eyes kept darting to one mammoth book that was open face down, its pages falling out of the binding and her right eye was twitching, which was a sure sign that she was not happy about it. It reminded Natsu of their first mission together; they had to steal a book from that crazy rich guy with really ugly maids (except Virgo who turned out to be really pretty and nice) and Lucy had looked like she was going to be sick when she was told they had to destroy the book.

He didn't really understand why, but books were important to Lucy and if they were important to her than he'd be nice to them. That's why this job sounded like fun to him; it something right up Lucy's alley.

Besides, he'd never been to a school before and it seemed like it might be fun. _And it totally is!_

Natsu's attention was drawn as a pile of books that nearly reached the ceiling shifted to his right, teetering dangerously back and forth. Taking a precautionary step back he grabbed Happy off the floor and put him up on his shoulder. He knew firsthand how much a book could hurt; granted they were usually throw at him, but falling from up high couldn't be much different.

"No no no no no no—" A panicked voice suddenly chirped from behind the swaying book pile and a tall slender man with a low, long grey pony tail sprang into view with his arms out ready to catch any book that fell.

He didn't look very strong and there were a lot of book in the pile and- _ouch_. Natsu cringed as gravity won the fight and the pile came crashing down right onto the man who fell backwards onto a large desk knocking over another pile of books which flung off the desk and onto the chair where…

_Books. Books _everywhere_. _

Once the dust settled Gray took a hesitant step towards the desk, eyeing the other stacks of books that managed to stay standing. "Um, are you Professor Rosche?"

The man turned and stared at Gray, blinking as if he wasn't sure he was looking at someone or not. After a moment he stood up straight, dusted his black shirt off and fixed his collar obviously ignoring the fact that he just lost a battle with his personal library. "I am and who are you three?"

"Four!" Happy piped up putting a paw in the air.

"My apolo—" The professor stopped short as he turned to look at Natsu and blinked again. He reached into his pocket and took out a pair of small rectangular glasses, cleaned them on his sleeve and put them on and blinked again. "Oh, oh my…is…are you a cat?"

Natsu frowned. He was really tired of all these people calling Happy a cat. Maybe he was _cat-like_, but Happy was Happy, his best friend and partner and that's all there was to it.

Happy didn't really seemed bothered though. He nodded and leapt off Natsu's shoulder, padded across the room to stop at the professor's feet. "Yup! I'm also a member of Fairy Tail, so there are four of us here."

"Fairy Tail?" Professor Roche frowned and then jumped with a small gasp. "Oh, the guild! Yes, yes, of course you're here about my bill. Fantastic, great, wonderful, come in come in, sit down!" He paused and looked at the chairs covered paper and books and shook his head. "Oh second thought, do you mind standing?"

_And people call me hyper?_ Natsu had to try very hard not to laugh as the man ran around to the other side of his desk and began shuffling through papers, tossing pens and books and what looked like half a sandwich aside. _What a waste of food…_

"Aha!" Rosche finally found what he was looking for and motioned for them to come closer to the desk. "Come here, come here. What do you see?"

He smoothed out a large map of what Natsu recognized as Earthland, but it looked very different from other ones he'd seen. Instead of numerous towns and cities and roads written on it, it was filled with rivers and mountains and forests and the desert. It even went beyond Fiore's borders and marked some of the lands to the north and east.

"Whoa, this is a really old map!" Lucy said with that lilt in her voice that told Natsu she was getting excited. "The capitol isn't even marked on here."

The professor looked impressed and smiled at Lucy, looking over his glasses at her. "Very good. This is what our beautiful home looked like before the kingdom was settled here.

"Huh?" Natsu couldn't help raising an eyebrow. "Hasn't the kingdom always been here?"

"Not always, no." Rosche pushed his glasses up wiped a hand over the map. "Perhaps the people have always been here or at least some people were here, but the world we know now has been a long time in the making."

Lucy looked ready to start dancing on the spot. "So what does this have to do with your bill?"

"Absolutely nothing." The professor grinned. "I just thought it was interesting. Your job only has to do with here." He tapped a large country in the middle of the map.

_Woohoo!_ Natsu immediately burst into a giant grin. Desierto was warm and sunny and everything he loved. He glanced over at Gray and yup, definitely not happy. _This is gonna be fun._

Gray scratched the back of his head. "So, what are we going to be doing? Your posting didn't say a whole lot."

"Yes, yes." A quick ruffle of paper and the map was folded up and on top of a stack of books and folder was in its place. "This is everything you'll need to know. In short I posted that bill for a dear friend and old colleague of mine who's worried about a guild that is stirring up trouble in his town."

A small tap on his ankle alerted Natsu that Happy wanted in on the conversation. As he scooped his friend up he caught Gray's eye. They all knew that taking a job that involved another guild without their knowledge was technically against the rules. Spying or intervening on another guild's job was also bad news. Basically anything that could end in a fight was bad.

Bad but boring, because at the end of the day, who didn't want to blow of some steam? Especially against

"Are we going to spy on them?" Happy asked jumping from Natsu's hand onto the desk.

"Oh no no no. That wouldn't be right of me to ask; you could get in trouble. You're just going to finish their job before them." A push of the glasses and a glance at the three (four) mages and Rosche burst into a grin at their wary faces. "I know, I know. Two guilds cannot take the same job, but I am not the original poster and my job is slightly different. It just has the same goal; finding an animal that lives outside my friend's town in the desert."

_It got better!_ Natsu grinned at Lucy as she laughed in his direction. He was glad they went on a job, but he was seriously wondering how much fun he could have when it looked like it was all about books and studying. Hunting? That was _always_ fun and it usually let him blow off some steam…so to speak. Even Gray looked a little happier.

Oh it was on. He and Happy were going to find this animal before Gray and it was going to be glorious rubbing it in his face. They'd also totally be beating another guild and, rivalry rules be damned, that was _always_ a good time.

* * *

A/N: I've posted a good bunch of this story on an old forum thread (but I stopped for reasons) and a lot of people had a problem with my Gray. I know that he and Natsu are kind of portrayed as easy going and rather simple minded, but Gray always struck me as a more philosophical person on the inside. Especially when I read the Deloria arc or even how he handled things in Edoras, he's quite methodical in the way he acts. Unless Natsu is around and there's a challenge in the air… then all bets are off. =p

Anyway, thanks for reading! Comments and reviews are always appreciated (and I really take what you say into consideration, I want to improve my writing and storytelling skills). See you soon!


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